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  • Guest Post – Relieving Back Pain

    As I settle into my ‘thirty somethings’, I’m noticing that things aren’t functioning the way they used to.  My stomach throws temper tantrum when I over-do it on the dairy, my eyesight is playing tricks on me, gravity is ‘shifting things’ to and fro…and my back…my back is killing me.

    There are many reasons that women suffer from back pain. Pregnancy, osteoporosis, onset arthritis, fibromyalgia, emotional stress (causing tension), large breasts…even the wrong bra…can all be responsible for the unbearable back pain that so many of us have been trying to ‘get used to’.  It’s awful, and often agonizing.
    I’m no Madeline Manning, but I’m still far too young, to feel this old. I don’t want to move like an old lady. Even when I’m an old lady, I don’t want to be moving like an old lady. So, as I do…I hit the books in search of potential solutions to my achy-breaky-back problems.
    First, above all, seek out advice from your health care practitioner. Your doctor will be able to first assess and diagnose your situation. Any medical will first want to rule out potential disease and/or injury before deciding the best approach to treatment.
    After seeking the advice from your doctor, here are some tips for keeping your back pain in check.
    Acupuncture
    This form of traditional Chinese medicine uses needles, inserted along specifically chosen pathways, to unblock energy.  This treatment is said to calm the nervous system and release natural pain relieving chemicals.

    Breathing techniques
    Many people underestimate the power of breathing to help improve health. In relation to back health, breathing techniques can help reduce pain, can have a significant improvement on stress-levels associated with dealing with pain and disability. 

    Vitamins and Minerals
    Eating well, and maintaining a healthy supply of vitamins and minerals…is a no brainer. These nutrients however, go the extra mile.
    – Vitamin D – Chronic muscle pain has been linked to deficiencies in Vitamin D. Dose up on your Vitamin D through healthy exposure to sunlight, or an affordable supplement found through your local drug or health store.

    – Vitamin B12 – This has been shown to help problems with lower back pain, reducing pain and disability. Vitamin B12 is found predominantly through meat, eggs and dairy. For those who are cutting down, or have completely eliminated meat products from their diets – Fear Not! Vitamin B 12 Supplements are also easily tracked down through local drugstores!
    – Magnesium – Tests have suggested this mineral has a dramatic effect on the pain experienced with chronic lower back pain. Consume more magnesium by taking supplements or by eating more green leafy vegetables, dairy products, fish, meat and nuts.

    Capsaicin Cream
    Capsaicin is  found in chili peppers.  Word on the street is that when the skin absorbs capsaicin, it has a pain relieving affect. The good news with capsaicin cream, is that it can be found in nearly local drug or health store, and doesn’t come with the questionable side effects of a pharmaceutical product. 

    Yoga
    Yoga has been all the rage for some time now…but this low impact form of exercise has significant bonuses to just ‘getting fit’. Yoga focuses on creating a sense of balance within your body by developing flexibility and strength. Yoga can reduce pain and decrease flexibility. Don’t be intimidated. Everyone who started, felt silly and inflexible. That’s the point. The point is to push your limits and get stronger! Beginner classes in your community will be easy to find.

    Krill Oil
    Krill is a tiny shrimp that lives in the cold ocean waters in Antarctica. While fish oil has been getting attention for some time now, not a lot of specific attention has been placed on Krill Oil even though it has quite the impressive resume. Studies have proven that krill oil will reduce inflammation, and, by association, a lot of the pain associated with arthritis.
    With such a high Omega 3 content, krill oil is also known to alleviate some of the symptoms attached to premenstrual syndrome, boost immunity and promote cellular health.

    Massage therapy
    Massage is a common remedy (and treat!) for achy backs. A good therapist will use techniques that reduce tension, alleviate pain and provide relief to anxiety and depression. Personally, I don’t think you should even wait for back pain to get yourself a massage. Chances are, even as you read this, it’s well deserved.

    So, those are a few ‘tricks of the trade’. Nothing fancy. But I hope next time I go to pick up my nephew, I’m not stuck moaning on the couch for days afterwards.  After all, I plan on teaching the little guy how to boogie when he grows up!

    *Sandra Goldstein has been working in the nutrition industry for a number of years and prides herself on maintaining a healthy lifestyle. When Sandra is not down the gym she likes to watch TV on her couch and annoy her cat.
  • Spring Cleaning – Guest post from Mumfection

    Spring Cleaning – Guest post from Mumfection

    Samantha's Day
    A big thank you to Eschelle from Mumfection for this post on Spring Cleaning!  I love the way she has color coded her home to make this project as easy as possible!
    This Spring, for our house, is going to be intense.  I can’t say it will be an easy one, but this year our house is going to be SPOTLESS and completely organized even if it kills me.  Spring cleaning is a big job and this year is even more so with the fact that my eldest will be entering Kindergarten in September and I want to be as organized as possible for that.  I have a number of ideas on how I am going to attack everything I will share the rough draft of my plan with you here:
    Closets/Storage for Donations (ORANGE) —  I find this to be one of the most important steps cause it is the time where you not only clean out and uncluttered, you are given the privileged of teach your children a life lesson on giving to others in need.  When it comes to closets I like to work from the back of the house to the front, which for me, means I start with the children’s closets/drawers.  Making sure to go through all their toys WITH the kids, and their clothes.  Thankfully for me this year it almost means putting all my eldest clothes right into my youngest dressers, then it is just a matter of going through my saved up hand-me-downs to fill up my eldests’ dressers the best I can.  At that time I know exactly what my eldest will be in need of and I can go out and BUY WISELY.  Which is really important on a budget like mine, if I am lucky this year I will be collecting a million hand-me-downs making purchasing clothes basically an obsolete budget requirement.
    Kitchen & Bathrooms (RED) —  I like to consider both the bathrooms to be in a completely different category from everything else.  That of which I like to break up my bedroom cleanings with… mainly cause I procrastinate when it comes to folding clothing in my own room…. I hate it.  One thing all mother’s need is a machine that folds your clothes for you, that is CHEAP!  So I again like to start from the back emptying the bathroom just as if we were moving, throwing out expired products or empty bottles etc…  After that I wipe everything down, praying to remove the boy smell from the bathroom (I have a trick for that), then re-organizing as I am putting everything back into place.  From that point I end up in the kitchen working top to bottom, again taking everything out just as I did with the bathroom. [my trick for eliminating boy smell].
    **note not actually MY trick… my ADOPTED trick so to say lol!!!

    currently messy toy storage
    Organization (MAGENTA) — This is the tedious part, going back through everything and putting it away properly (minus the bathroom and kitchen which you have already finished).  It begins with my most hated tasks, laundry and folding which then leads into organizing of all the clothes, which you have partially done already so this isn’t the hard part.  Once your dressers are all full and the laundry is gone, remembering to take time to adjust your linen closet as you put things away, you can move to the toys.  This I find so hard, re-separating everything and washing them.  This washing step is over looked by a lot of people but as a daycare provider I have to do this bi-weekly anyways, more often if a sickness breaks out.  We have bins for our boys and they are always messy!! I know that is attributed to the fact that during the weekdays I have four boys in my house.  The last part of this stage is going to be my biggest task… dealing with knick-knacks.  I have so many of these and no ways to display them, so my hope for this year is to find ways to showcase them, meaning shelves… I will need shelves, and pinterest is giving me more than enough ideas on how to do that; just a matter of getting hubby to execute my ideas!
    Scrubbing etc… (BLUE) — This should be very self explanatory basically scrubbing EVERYTHING from ceilings to floors.  Moving furniture around, the whole nine yards.  When it comes to scrubbing I am not terribly keen on any particular brands for it.  I have a few that I am loyal to like S.O.S pads for the dishes and BBQ grills, Comet for my bathtubs and I always use a vinegar water mix for my windows if I have nothing on hand that is an “all purpose” cleaner.  When it comes to buying one of those I just use whatever is on sale or whatever I have a coupon for, if I am lucky they go together and it is twice as cheap!  When it comes to the scrubbing stage it honestly comes down to pure elbow grease, cause you need to get down on your hands and knees all Cinderella style to do a really good job.  My place is really old too so even when I do, do this it still looks messy, it drives me nuts but we make the best of it and I am hoping to get everything slowly fixed up to the point where I can overlook the rest.  You know until we find a better apartment, a three bedroom apartment.
    Computer (GREEN) — This one I bet no one really thinks of but it is really important to maintain your computer and that means turning it off for a moment and cleaning it out.  I find that pressurized air in a can to be really helpful for some of the tougher parts of this job, but for the most part you can do it the old fashioned way.  Once you have done all that it is important to go through and organize your files properly and clean out old downloads etc… that you no longer need.  This is all stuff the gums up your computers gears so to speak.  Once you have done that back everything up, you MUST do this, I would be crushed if I lost anything, so I have it saved in many different places to make sure that doesn’t happen.  Then when all that horrible eye bleeding work is done you can DE-fragment or, what I like to do, reformat.  Keeping your computer clean and free of any unnecessary junk to make it slow and unhappy.
    When I finally get to the end of all that computer work I will be really happy cause I will have accomplished all this work and felt sooo great about it!  In fact just to get everything straight for you I have drawn out a basic map of my house and color coded it to this order.  Now you can see exactly what my “map of attack” is as they say.  I hope it makes sense to you cause it was surprisingly hard to try and map it all out, even though my layout is rather small and simple compared to others.  Also don’t think that my family gets out of any of this work, for example the computer is all on my hubby lol.
    spring cleaning map (code is in the above description)
    

  • Spring Cleaning – Guest Post from Trulie Scrumptious

    A big thanks to the fab sisters over at Trulie Scrumptious! I love their blog, and am thrilled they are letting me share their spring cleaning post. I think they’ve hit the nail on the head here! 
    Enjoy the humor these sisters bring as you get ready to Spring Clean your home!

    K*I*S*S
    {Keep It Scrumptiously Simple!}
    Spring Cleaning Edition!!  

    It’s a good thing that we’re are encouraged to cleaning at least once a year right? 

     The time of year to sweep off the inches of dust from the winter and get ready to let the sunshine through those dirty windows.  

    I know there are some of you out there that aren’t particularly fond of cleaning (myself included), but I’ll show you how to push the easy button on the [essential] things that need to get done in a breeze so you’ll have enough time to enjoy this coming Easter Sunday with your fams.

    {I get to cheat a little since I’m spending Easter at my fams, but next week I’ll be beating my booty to get it done before the nice weather hits.  Promise.  My legs need to get some sun-remember?!! :}

     Don’t think you have to get it ALL done in one day.  Remember to K*I*S*S.  

    As they say: Rome wasn’t cleaned in one day-or something like that… 
     Work towards getting one thing checked off your list and pat your self on the back and help yourself to a piece of chocolate {or two}.  Then repeat til it’s all DONE!
    *Just don’t forget to put on your sweats, pull the hair up in a messy bun or slap on that hat that you never wear-but can’t seem to get rid of, bump up the radio and SING like your neighbors aren’t starting at you like you’re weird.
      You’ll be glad you did 🙂

    Windows:
    [are a pain in the…] 
    BUT we’ve simplified it.  
    So go ahead and relieve this off your honey’s list and in return he just might cook you dinner 😉
    1. Close all windows    2. Sweep debris and dirt with a broom    3. Rinse winders with Windex outdoor multi-surface concentrated cleaner attached to your hose ($10 at Wally (WalMart) or Targè (Target))  4. Click to Clean. Spray.  Give it 30 secs to soak.    5. Rinse spraying top to bottom   6. Take a bucket, fill it with H20 and a tich of dish soap inside (your house…)  7. Grab a rag and wipe out all the black gunk that coagulates in the tracks.    8. With another rag (microfiber works best), dunk and wring out and use it to clean the interior winders- outside corners to middle using circular motions (wax on, wax off)  9. Take a step back and admire your glorious glass 🙂 
    Carpets:
    Need to be done in my house.  Hello-I’ve got a smelly dog! 
    Here’s what to do:
    1. Scope out and determine what spots need to be cleaned.  The majority of the cleaning will be in high traffic areas (or right under an outlet where you spilled hot Scenty wax-grrr.).  2. Vacuum back and forth over the trouble spot for about 30 secs (You can do this for rugs as well).  3. Using a great carpet cleaner-Real Simple.com recommends LA’s Totally Awesome cleaner and degreaser ($3 on Amazon)- dunk on a wet rag and let it sit for 5 mins.   4. Blot with a dry rag working from the outside in. Repeat with new rag and really get there and blot applying pressure with your foot.  5. Dry spot with a hair dryer, portable heater, or bribe your kids to blow on it-juuust kidding 🙂  6. Open your sparklingly clean windows and shower your carpet with baking soda next time you vacuum to eliminate odors.  
    Mattresses:
    I am down to one mattress in my house, so lucky me 🙂  But this is so easy peasy you’ll be done before snack time!
    1.  Strip the bed and throw the mattress cover into the wash.  For stains-soak with OxyClean and cold water. Then wash with detergent on hot, adding 1 cup of white vinegar to freshen the wash.  2. Over the mattress, dump sprinkle your baking soda that you used for your carpets {be sure to save some to make some cookies later} -again taking out the smelly stuff.  And forget about it.  3. Take the mattress cover out of the wash and either hang it outside on the line or throw it in the dryer with two tennis balls.   4.  (My favorite part ;] )  Cover your bed with new sheets (Leave the baking soda on there, then vacuum it up next time you change sheets).  And if you so choose-slip some nice smelling dryers sheets under the mattress cover to give it that extra little somthin’ somthin’ while you sleep.  
    Ahhh…
    The Couch (el sofá-if you speak spanish)
    5-10 minutes per furniture piece.  Come on! Almost done!!
    What you’ll need to start with is 1. an old sheet.  Spread it down and shower it with couch cushions-so you don’t ruin your new clean carpet :).     2. Obtain a dry cleaning sponge ($5, amazon.com) and give those cushions a good rub down.  3.  Roll a lint roller front, back, side to side.  Vacuum!  4. Scour the empty couch frame for gold, pirate booty, and treasure – I’m pretty sure you can find some.  One time, well after Christmas I found my sisters’ long lost mascara that Santa had brought her.  So DIG deep! 🙂  4. Vacuum! the frame.   4-1/2. Build a fort with the cushions before you put them back.  Just do it!- I won’t tell!  5. Replace cushions. Go crazy with the roller of the lint and….you’re DONE!

    Now that wasn’t so hard, huh?
    Now go spend the priate booty you found.  
    OR put it in the “jar” —the cruise, rainy day, new car one. 

    HOpPy CLeAnInG EvErYoNe!   

    Reference: RealSimple.com 

    Thanks Ashlie and Rozalynn for sharing. I hope you two are having lots of fun again this year!!

  • Delivery Day – Guest Post

    Being ready to pop Baby Prince out in just over a month, I was excited to have Katie guest post today! Getting ready for delivery day can be stressful, exciting and nerve racking. What do you take? Are you ready for this new addition to your life? There are so many choices to make. How do you know which one is right for you?  Hopefully this article will help you get ready for that special bundle of joy.

    Making Delivery Day Feel Easier

    Before an expecting mom welcomes her new baby into the world there is quite a few things she can do to prepare for the big day — delivery day! When a woman finds out she is pregnant, her preparations for delivery day begins immediately. Here are a few tips to help you along the way.

    The first thing expecting moms need to do is find a doctor with whom they would like to work with during the next 40 weeks. During your pregnancy, you will see your doctor on a regular basis to monitor your health and the health of your unborn child; you’ll most likely have many questions about what is happening to your body and your baby as well, so choose a doctor that you feel very comfortable with seeing often and asking your personal questions to.

    Also on the list of important things moms need to do before the baby arrives is to keep herself healthy. Obtaining a list of foods, drinks and medications that are off limits during pregnancy is a great idea for all expectant mothers. The most important thing you can do before delivery day is to make sure you’re eating a well-balanced diet and exercising. Exercising used to be thought of as a cause for miscarriage but is now shown to improve the health and emotional state of expecting mothers.

    Before your delivery day, it’s a great idea to speak to your doctor about your pain management options. Even moms that choose to use an epidural to deal with their pain need to figure out if they want to take the epidural immediately or if she wants to use natural pain relief for a portion of her pain management. Natural remedies include walking, water therapy and even breathing techniques.

    Preparing for immediately after the baby is born is something that may not be in the forefront of a mother’s mind with the big event of labor looming. After the baby is born, you will need to have picked out pediatrician to work with who will need to come and give the baby a checkup. If you would like your son to be circumcised, this will be a procedure you will need to talk about and plan for before he is born. For any newborn, the blood remaining in the umbilical cord blood after birth can be collected for cord blood banking. This option needs to be planned for ahead of time if it’s something you would like to do for your baby. Cord blood banking provides families with a related source of stem cells that could potentially be used to help treat a future disease. Having these post delivery options planned for ahead of time will allow a mother to just enjoy her new baby without thinking about more decisions to be made.

    Whether mom is having her first baby or her fourth, these tips and tricks are sure to help make her pregnancy and labor as easy and possible.

    “This article was written by Katie Moore. Katie is an active writer within the blogging community who discusses maternity, motherhood, prenatal health, childbirth and other topics within this niche.  If you have any questions or would like to connect with Katie please contact her via twitter @moorekm26.